Welcome

Welcome to my art blog from Tasmania, Australia. I post a little on my various art projects while also working in plant genetics. For more, please try the links to my various art pages or email me at silvergumstudio@yahoo.com.au. Thank you for visiting!

Monday, April 4, 2011

More about sun prints and photo pendants

Hi all,
this week I'm in the throes of photographing my large collection of shells and eucalypt fruits to develop new designs for printing on glass. The flower designs that I posted on March 23 were popular at the market, so I'm going to extend the range. So far, loose line drawings (and molecules) don't work as well as all-over tonal designs. I might try some Notan (Japanese black & white positive-negative shape imagery) next.

A few people have asked me about the sun-printing process I used. The original sunprints, made by placing flowers on photosensitive paper, look like the blue picture above and are 10 cm square. I scan them into the computer, convert them to greyscale, enhance the contrast and re-size them for printing pendant-sized onto ceramic decal paper. I fire this onto the top of art glass cut to size. The sun print is chiefly a silhouette where objects laid on the paper block the sun from exposing it, but because the flowers are three-dimensional, light sneaks in partially around the edges to create a slightly 3D effect. This print is of a flower that comes up every summer in our garden - Solomon's Seal.